Nawaz gets 10, Maryam 7 years sentence in Avenfield reference

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Friday sentenced ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in prison over his family’s purchase of upscale London flats in a major blow to his party ahead of a general election in July.

The guilty verdict in absentia against Sharif, 68, threatens to end the career of one Pakistan’s most high-profile politicians over the last four decades.

Sharif’s daughter Maryam was sentenced to seven years in prison. Maryam’s husband and PML-N lawmaker Muhammad Safdar was sentanced to one year in prison, prosecution lawyer Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi said.

Abbasi added that NAB court ordered Sharif to pay a fine of 8 million pounds ($10.6 million) and Maryam was fined 2 million pounds, while ordering the confiscation of the London properties on behalf of the Pakistani government.

Both Sharif and his daughter were in London on Friday with Sharif’s wife, Kulsoom, who is being treated there for cancer and is in a coma after suffering a heart attack last month.

They both denied wrongdoing and are expected to appeal.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court accused Sharif and his family of being unable to legitimately show the money trail for the purchase of several luxurious properties in London, mostly in the mid-1990s.— Reuters